Is software patentable? Computers and software are everywhere in our daily lives; we rely on software inventions in our homes, our workplaces, our automobiles and our schools. We use them for pleasure, and depend on them for our health and safety. It is not an exaggeration to say that much of the future will be invented using computers and software.
Yet this question—whether computer-implemented inventions like systems and machines, processes and manufactured items constitute patentable subject matter—is only now squarely before the U.S. Supreme Court in Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd v. CLS Bank Int’l., No. 13-298.
